Hush, Hush Review

Synopsis: 

When Nora and Patch are forced together as lab partners, Nora would rather fall to her death than put up with his elusive answers to her questions, his teasing, and his infuriatingly handsome face and hypnotizing eyes. It seems Patch was put on earth just to drive her crazy.

But before long, Nora's defenses start to break down as her curiosity about Patch heats up. Why does he always seem to be wherever she is and know exactly what she's thinking? How does he know what to say to both attract and repulse her? And what is up with those V-shaped scars on his chiseled back?

As their connection grows stronger, Nora's own life becomes increasingly fragile. Nora needs to decide: Is Patch the one who wants to do her harm or the one who will keep her safe? Has she fallen for one of the fallen?   
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Review:

Wow. This book was amazing! I've had this book since early summer and never really got around to reading it because I had so much going on. After getting back from the Baltimore Book Festival, I got together a huge list of all of the books I haven't read, and sent them to my friends. Over half of them wanted me to read Hush, Hush first. 

This book starts out with a pretty good introduction to Vee and Nora's friendship. It's one of those friendships that you wish you had. They are practically sisters, they know everything about one another. 

In Nora's Biology class, her teacher, Coach McConaughy, decides to change up the seats. Nora is absolutely ecstatic about being seated next to a mysterious kid she doesn't know (note the sarcasm). Coach McConaughy gives the students an assignment to get to know their new lab partners. Nora tries and tries to get some information out of her new partner, but all she manages to find out is his name, which is Patch. Oddly, Patch seems to know everything about her. 

Nora's mom at first seemed to me like one of those parents that just works all the time and never really spends any time with their kid. As the book progresses, though, we find out that it's actually quite the opposite.

Soon we meet two new people. Elliot and Jules. Vee immediately took a liking to them, naturally being more trusting than Nora. When we are introduced to them, I found Elliot super suspicious. Who is THAT nice? Then we meet Rixon, Patch's friend. Him and Patch are play fighting and Patch's shirt gets ripped. Nora spots two grotesque looking scars on his back, in the shape of an upside-down V. She decides to look it up and discovers that Patch is actually a fallen angel. 

Nora writes for her school's newspaper. She goes to the library often to send reviews and more. When in the library she decides to look up Elliot, thrown off by the bad vibes she gets from him. She finds nothing under his name but she does find something under his old school, Kinghorn Prep. He is suspected of killing a girl. Eager to know more, Nora goes up to Portland. She asks a waitress a bunch of questions, in an attempt to find out what is really going on. The more she hears, the more she believes that Elliot really did murder this girl.

Naturally, Nora calls Vee to tell her what she found out, but Vee is with Elliot. Nora decides to meet up with Elliot and Vee. She asks a homeless lady for directions and in turn has to give the lady her coat and beanie. Minutes later, the homeless woman is shot dead. Scared out of her wits, Nora calls Patch to pick her up. Patch brings her to a motel where she begrudgingly decides to stay the night. Nora sees those scars once again on Patch's back and this time, touches them. All of the sudden shes transported to years ago and finds out that Patch was supposed to kill her. 

Elliot calls Nora and says "Nora? Come play with us. Otherwise, there's a tree in the common area with Vee's name on it. Patch and Nora head to the high school to try to save Vee. Then the secrets all come out, it wasn't Elliot trying to kill Nora or Vee, it was Jules. 

Jules has been able to deceive all of them by planting false images and information in their heads. Jules and Nora get into a huge, very physical fight that ends up with Nora jumping off a ladder, sacrificing herself so Patch can be human. Patch saves Nora's life and becomes her guardian angel, turning down the offer of becoming human. 

Patch turning down being human for Nora was so amazing! All he ever wanted was to be human, and he gave that up for Nora. AWWWWW. 

The ending gave me one question, if Nora is a descendant of Jules/Chauncey on her dad's side, did her dad get murdered because of that?

Overall, I think this was an amazing book and I look forward to reading the rest of the series!

Here are the links:

amazon

itunes

barnes and noble

kobo